I'm trying to write a macro that defines some helpers for struct-of-arrays data structure (based on this snippet). Inside that macro I define another macro that helps with traversing all of the slot values in struct. The thing is I can't make double unquoting work properly. Here's the code:
(defmacro defcomponent (name-and-options &body slots)
(setf name-and-options (ensure-list name-and-options))
(let ((struct (first name-and-options))
(slot-names (iter (for s in slots)
(collecting
(ematch s
((or (and name (symbol)
(<> _ '*)
(<> _ nil))
(list* name _ (plist :type _ :read-only _)))
name))))))
`(progn (defstruct ,name-and-options
;; some task-specific stuff omitted here
)
(defmacro ,(symbolicate 'with- struct) (components &rest body)
`(loop
,@',(iter (for s in slot-names)
(appending `(for ,s across (,(symbolicate struct '- s) components))))
do ,@body)))))
So for instance (defcomponent buzz x y) macroexpands to
(PROGN
(DEFSTRUCT (BUZZ)
X Y) ;; details omitted
(DEFMACRO WITH-BUZZ (COMPONENTS &REST BODY)
`(LOOP ,@'(FOR X ACROSS (BUZZ-X COMPONENTS) FOR Y ACROSS (BUZZ-Y COMPONENTS))
DO ,@BODY))
which kinda works, but I want to access components parameter of the internal with-buzz macro, i.e. something like this
(DEFMACRO WITH-BUZZ (COMPONENTS &REST BODY)
`(LOOP FOR X ACROSS (BUZZ-X ,COMPONENTS) FOR Y ACROSS (BUZZ-Y ,COMPONENTS)
DO ,@BODY))
How do I possibly acheive that? I've tried a lot of the combinations of , and ,@ to no avail.
Sometimes it helps not to work with backquote patterns. Then scope problems can be easier understood with the help of a compiler, which would warn about the usual variable scope problems.
As a slightly simplified exercise, we will write a function, which generates code. The generated code is a macro definition, which itself generates code.
(defun makeit (name slots)
(labels ((symbolicate (pattern &rest things)
(intern (apply #'format nil pattern things)))
(compute-for-clauses (slots)
(loop for s in slots
append (list ''for (list 'quote s)
''across (list 'list
(list 'quote
(symbolicate "~a-~a" name s))
'components)))))
(list 'progn
(list 'defmacro
(symbolicate "WITH-~a" name)
'(components &rest body)
(append '(list* 'loop)
(compute-for-clauses slots)
(list ''do 'body))))))
Example
CL-USER 51 > (pprint (makeit 'buzz '(x y)))
(PROGN
(DEFMACRO WITH-BUZZ (COMPONENTS &REST BODY)
(LIST* 'LOOP
'FOR
'X
'ACROSS
(LIST 'BUZZ-X COMPONENTS)
'FOR
'Y
'ACROSS
(LIST 'BUZZ-Y COMPONENTS)
'DO
BODY)))
CL-USER 52 > (eval *)
NIL
CL-USER 53 > (macroexpand-1 '(with-buzz a (+ 12) (+ 30)))
(LOOP FOR X ACROSS (BUZZ-X A) FOR Y ACROSS (BUZZ-Y A) DO (+ 12) (+ 30))
T